Don’t Blame Me, I Did the Bare Minimum

Once every four years we get to witness one of the silliest traditions of all time: the predictable “Don’t blame me, I voted for Candidate X” bumper stickers and, nowadays, internet memes. Of course, this is not a recent development. Some of my earliest observations of politics came from bumper stickers signifying that a particular car’s owner could not be held liable for the impending destruction of the country at the hands of the barbarian Clintons because said owner had voted for George H. W. Bush.

The current version of this phenomenon has taken an interesting twist. Since both the Democrat and Republican candidates for president in 2012 represented roughly the same general slate of government interventions, domestic and foreign, it’s been hard for many people to get motivated to adorn their cars with professions of deep regret over a lost Romney presidency. The two candidates, after all, had their biggest dustups over Big Bird and binders full of women.

However, one candidate has been the recipient of such pining, and he wasn’t even on the November ballot. Devotees to the campaign of Texas congressman Ron Paul have begun circulating images like this one:

Now, to a certain degree I can understand the sentiment. As an organization devoted to the Constitution, we at the Tenth Amendment Center fully recognize that Congressman Paul would have been a significantly better president, constitutionally speaking, than either of the two big-party candidates. Admittedly, the standard that those two set is so ridiculously low that a trained monkey with a Magic 8-Ball would be an improvement.

However, advancing the cause of liberty and constitutionally limited government doesn’t begin and end with voting for Ron Paul (and I’m pretty sure that Ron Paul would be the first person to agree with this). If all you’re doing to advance these causes is trying to elect the “right guy” as president, then you are likely to be disappointed. And, truth be told, you are to blame too.

Voting for a president, or really any federal politician, can certainly be one step you take to advance liberty and the rule of the Constitution. It is, however, far from the most meaningful. No, the really meaningful steps you can take are closer to home. If voting is your thing, then identify and support local and state politicians that understand the correct balance of power between the state and federal governments. If you’re more predisposed to activism, organize your fellow citizens in an appeal to your current state and local representatives to refuse compliance with unconstitutional federal laws. If you’re a gifted communicator, spread the message that federalism is the only political structure which consistently protects the rights of the people.

For those of us who believe in decentralization, there’s so much to do that there’s not much time to think about who wasn’t elected president. But, if it makes anyone feel better, we can point out that one guy is not the solution to our political mess. The fact of the matter is that a resurrected Thomas Jefferson couldn’t waltz into the Oval Office and clean up Washington DC’s mess.

Jefferson famously wrote in the Kentucky Resolutions, “…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Jefferson knew that for liberty to advance, the citizens, through their state governments, would have to hold the federal government in check. This would be the states’ right and responsibility no matter who the president was. This is Ron Paul’s position as well.

True advocates of liberty don’t sulk because their candidate wasn’t elected. They don’t idly gloat in the comfortable knowledge that their guy would have been a better choice. They certainly don’t look three years down the road to see which defender of liberty will come riding to their rescue astride a white horse. Voting, especially at the federal level, is doing the bare minimum. For those who wish to live free from the oppression of an overreaching federal government, there’s real work to be done.

One thought on “Don’t Blame Me, I Did the Bare Minimum”

Responsibility lays in the hearts and minds of individuals and not the states or federal Governments and both can be found to be the same corruption funded by the same special interests. This fact resonates over us in each state as we watch our state Governments act in support of Governments and the growth of and show me in every state that this is not true. All states have balloted state Governments and all states LOVE federal Funding and any special interest that will serve their growth.

Having parties is actually like having a party, no one wants to take responsibility and clean up the mess after words, they all just want to party. So blaming each other is the habit that is formed by going to parties and being unresponsive to your own support.

Yes there is divide in each state as well in this entire country and better yet around the world. A world you don’t get to run from and you are a part of no matter how long you stick your head in the dark spot of yourself. The lack of responsibility is directly related to self and the lack of our own understanding, our heart center, our life abilities and is best expressed in this manner;
Dependence versus Independence, meaning all those who wish to go to parties and hold no responsibility and the rest of us that truly wish to be responsible for our decisions and our agreements and this is the divide. This includes those who walk around saying they are independent while they walk around using some others system of poor result. Its all about stature and look at me, I have 49 sheets of paper on a wall that says I am bitchen and can do anything I want and all you who only have one sheet or no sheet are not privileged enough to stand on my ground. Yet all were dependent upon such an agreement and show not one sign of independence, no responsibility for what goes on in the world and have no activities or accomplishments that exemplify they support independence what so ever.

This fact is in total denial across this land and has enormous amounts of agreement and so the parties remain the life blood of no responsibility at all.

If you wish to be in a state of Independence you first have to live independence in your own space, your own heart and then you have to understand and form this agreement in your communities and then your states and this is not done by or through Governments unless of course they are filled with independent responsible minds.

Again this bares repeating, you will not and cannot fix broken with broken because the mechanics of it are broken. This is simple because the base or foundation of its workings are broken. In this country this can be labeled as education and the dependence and agreement to such a state which is entirely miss defined. We do not have education in this country, we have indoctrination camps to form agreement for dependence and this state of BEing rather than being ourselves based upon the understanding of ourselves as human beings, life upon a planet in a solar system in a galaxy within a universe. I know this from experience (real education) and see it first hand around me every single day. Most people go into agreements that cause Dependence upon others who rely on dependence and there is no responsibility here in any form all because its a big party, a big show or a display of look at me, I have 49 pieces of paper on my wall and therefore am privileged by those I am dependent on.

Stop depending on state Governments and start depending on your own set of skills, what are those you ask? Maybe you should start asking and finding these answers independently and stop conforming to what others THINK. Know that it fully supports you as LIFE on this planet and give up what others have told you supports you on this planet. Go look at nature in a forrest and get a real education of how this system really works and where responsibility truly resides because this is the true class room and not an indoctrination camp.

We are not in this state because of our self understanding, we are here because we are in direct violation to such an understanding and WE are the correction unto ourselves by being able to depend on our choices and our agreements in a show of total life support.